Imagine you’re sitting down, on the interweb, doing you own thing. Not too far away is someone playing the same game that you are. It is a storyline you haven’t finished yet but are currently actively playing. Said person starts talking. Now up until this point, you’ve avoided spoilers as much as possible. Looking the other way during scenes and the likes. However this person starts talking about a later mission, giving away vital details. You’ve just been spoiled and this is Gamer Etiquette.
Understandable if a game is x-amount of years old. I wouldn’t be as upset if a plot point in a game was spoiled for me, for example, Assassin’s Creed III. There is a time limit, out of respect for others, about posting spoilers online. However when the person delivering the spoiler is a friend or family member and they know you haven’t gotten that far in a game or haven’t played it yet, that’s a whole different level, accidental or not.
The internet can be fickle, to say the least. Most people know to avoid places like Twitter and Tumblr if they haven’t seen the latest TV show, movie or played the latest game. The minority are thoughtful at least. They’ll tweet that the movie was excellent and if someone comes along that has seen the same movie, they’ll take it to a private chat to avoid spoiling it for someone else.
Accidental or not, having a game spoiled still hurts and is borderline disrespectful. Everyone knows that Aerith dies, but saying it only months after or dodging the twist a year after the fact is still a slow blow. Have you ever been spoiled, be it video game or otherwise? Care to share what it is, by all means, hit up the comments below.
